Welcome to Apnea Board ! As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.
Login or Create an Account

Dr. Dan Winter, of the Downtown Medical Group in Manhattan, Kansas, talks with Sleep Better TV about the huge health issues associated with sleep disorder breathing.

Research has shown that there are huge health ramifications with a disturbed sleep cycle, according to Dr. Dan Winter of the Downtown Dental Group and Center for Dental Sleep Medicine, in Manhattan, Kansas. He says that about 24% of middle-aged men and about 9% of middle-aged women will be affected by sleep disorder breathing.

With about 25% of Americans at risk for sleep disorder breathing, one of the major factors of sleep disorder breathing is an increase in BMI and increased weight. 75% of sleep disorder breathing patients have a higher incidence of hypertension, men especially have an increased risk of stroke and about 11% of post-menopausal women suffer from sleep disorder breathing. This is a large health issue that deserves the attention it gets, says Dr. Winter.

Sleep disorder breathing doesn t only affect adults, as about 25% of children with ADHD are suffering from a sleep issue and don t need to be on ADHD medications. The spectrum is community-wide from children to mature adults and it all needs to be evaluated to see how it affects their health overall, says Dr. Winter.

Sleep Cycles

Dr. David Rawson

Dr. David Rawson of the TMJ Sleep Therapy Centre in London, Ontario, Canada, talks with Sleep Better TV about the different sleep cycles people go through at night and how a sleep apnea patient doesn t go through all of the sleep cycles, most importantly, the deeper, restorative cycles.

Dr. Rawson says it s in deep and REM sleep where a lot of important physiological functions take place, such as memory consolidation, tissue repair and hormonal changes - all things our bodies need to be fit the next day. If we don t know about the quality of the sleep of our patients and they don t know to tell us about it, they may be fluttering in very light sleep for a good part of the night and not understand why they feel tired all of the time. It s quality over quantity we re looking for when diagnosing and managing our patients, says Dr. Rawson.

Patients with sleep apnea are struggling to get to deep sleep, notes Dr. Rawson and that they might be in stages 1-2 for most of the night. Dr. Rawson says that this is measured through a laboratory sleep study, not a home-based test.

The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material available is intended to advance the understanding of Sleep Apnea treatment and to advance the educational level of Sleep Apnea patients with regard to their health. Sometimes included is the full text of articles and documents rather than a simple link because outside links frequently "go bad" or change over time. This constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this post is distributed without fee or payment of any kind for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this post for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Useful Links

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.